1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to pictorial tour process(es) and applications thereof. In comparably general terms, the invention relates to a product comprising a pictorial tour which can be reckoned as still and/or motion pictures as well as an optional accompanying audio track (eg., inclusion of the audio track is preferred).
The invention includes the provision of diverse venues for the viewing (eg., playback) of such pictorial tours for amusement, teaching, coaching and training. Inventive aspects hereof include the provision of such a venue(s) as one or more wide area servers (eg., web servers on the Internet) which enable relatively wide area network-like dissemination and/or distribution of a given pictorial tour to diverse remote clients at diverse remote locations. A complimentary inventive aspect hereof includes the provision of relatively local area servers which enable the viewing of a given pictorial tour in a relatively specific locality which likely is proximately where the given pictorial tour was recorded. An example of this is the xe2x80x9celectronic caddyxe2x80x9d use of a golf course pictorial tour in accordance with the invention.
Other aspects of the invention relate to the production of the pictorial tour product. Processes are described which allow acquisition of views both on the ground and also at some given elevation above the ground. Such diverse vantage points are desired to provide such substantive content with the views as to support various instructional, educational, and/or entertainment enterprises and so on, which enterprises shall offer the pictorial tours as a lead or way-of-attracting a given consumer group into giving attention to the offerings of the enterprise. Another aspect of the invention relates to the structure of such enterprises which incorporate the advantages of the inventive pictorial tours.
A number of additional features and objects will be apparent in connection with the following discussion of preferred embodiments and examples.
2. Prior Art
Some understanding of the context of the invention can be reckoned in part by making an analogy to FM radio. Briefly stated, in FM radio, competing radio stations in a given listening area compete with each other for audience. Music-playing FM radio stations appear to establish a niche for themselves by staking their distinctiveness on a given music format. In doing so, such radio stations often advertise this fact on their broadcast. And so, perhaps some of us have encountered in the past this kind of a radio advertisement:xe2x80x94eg., xe2x80x98 . . . rival radio-station X plays music which is too hard, and rival radio-station Z plays music which is too soft, but we play music which is just right . . . xe2x80x99
Furthermore, this kind of advertisement might include samples of music that is xe2x80x98too hardxe2x80x99 and xe2x80x98too soft.xe2x80x99 The music which is xe2x80x98too hardxe2x80x99 might be represented by shrieking noisiness. The music which is xe2x80x98too softxe2x80x99 might be represented by elevator music. Immediately following those samples which the advertisement has sought to ridicule, the advertisement is likely to include a selection of music deemed (arbitrarily needless to say) to be xe2x80x98just right.xe2x80x99
Assuming arguendo that many of us are familiar with FM radio advertisements of that kind (if not, the foregoing example is simple enough), the point of the analogy is this. Competing FM radio stations commonly seek to establish a niche for themselves in their market by their music formats. They choose and/or cultivate their niche by design. They advertise their niche on their broadcasts. They research who their audience is and what kinds of songs keeps their audience tuned in. They attract paying-sponsors based not just on size but more significantly the composition of the audience that such a niche or music format evidently appeals to.
To get back to how this relates to the invention, on the Internet nowadays there is getting to be a crowded field of competitors with websites on golf and golf courses. Many of these compete directly with one another for audience. Among these golf websites, one group can be characterized as the home sites for individual golf courses. Typically, a golf-course home site posts various pictures of its course, facilities and grounds. The pictures are typically beauty shots of the landscape or certain monster holes.
Much else found on the prior art golf websites is sales and hype. The course-owned websites naturally concentrate on hyping their courses. To be fair, they do include views of stunning scenery. In other ways, the advertising is more overt. Enticements and hype is included meant to work emotional appeals on the audience. The hoped for result might have the audience conjuring up fantastical expectations. But most people recognize hype and sales-puffing as such. It triggers alarms. It repels people in some cases, in others it has the audience wary that sales-puffing and hype are not truly reliable sources of unbiased information.
There are also golf channels which run programsxe2x80x94not necessarily free of sales-puffing and hypexe2x80x94but instead can characterized by their xe2x80x9ctalkxe2x80x9d format. A lengthy program might have a host talking on and demonstrating such a single-minded matter as, for example, the non-flat clubfaces on drivers. Such a program might actually be an extended advertisement for the given driver, the sponsor, or the host""s golf-lesson school. Other subjects for the golf channels are the PGA tour, and the unfolding of the action of a PGA tournament while it is underway.
None of the foregoing is preferable for the recreational player who wishes to research the shot-by-shot play of a given golf course for the sake of planning a visit or vacation. What is needed is an improvement which overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art and affords a pictorial tour website that allows web-users/recreational-level players to research the different venues on the website database with pictorial tours that are relatively concise and uncluttered by extraneous material.
What is provided by the present inventionxe2x80x94in particular as applied to the game of golfxe2x80x94is a golf website which presents pictorial tours of various golf courses by means of shot-by-shot teachings from a player""s perspective of the recommended play of a given hole. Such a shot-by-shot teaching tour affords a web user opportunities to be entertained and/or make an informed choice, relatively free of the influence of overt advertising, whether to visit the course immediately or consider it again another time.
The inventive pictorial tours are provided by a website of an Internet domain under the authority of a given service bureau. The service bureau is situated as an intermediary party between golf course owners on one hand, and web-users/golf-players on the other hand. The service bureau balances the interests between the courses and the users. The users are reliant on the service bureau for tours which conform to the service bureau""s standard of quality. The permission of a golf course for inclusion on the website should not come at the price of subversion of that standard of quality. Hence the: service bureau sets standards or protocols governing the format of the tours. One of the service bureau""s functions is publishing tours which conform that format. Consistency has its own separate value. The service bureau xe2x80x9csellsxe2x80x9d its format to golf courses as good business for them (ie., the golf courses). That is, a shot-by-shot teaching tour from a player""s perspective is valuable promotion nevertheless, even if overt advertising messages are excluded. Users can utilize the golf web site as a grand business directory which is informative, instructional and entertaining at the same time. The consistency of format for tours fosters familiarity which ought to encourage repeat traffic among the user audience.
The website further provides users with processes which allow online the making of travel and lodging reservations, tee time reservations, and check the current and forecasted weather for the golf course.
These and other aspects and objects are provided according to the invention in a method of informative amusement with a website database containing a pictorial tours of holes of different amusement venues as, for example, golf courses. The method optionally involves some of the following steps.
A website is provided with a database having a plurality of pictorial tours, wherein each pictorial tour features one hole of a golf course, the database having pictorial tours of multiple holes of diverse golf courses. There are users having machines for implementing a web browser and allowing selective playback of the pictorial tours. These users can connect online to global computer information network for handling the transmissions between the website and the user""s machine.
Pictorial tours are arranged as an episode for continuous play from a beginning to an end and featuring a single hole, each episode comprising a series of scenes sequenced together for automatic playback from beginning to end, which series of scenes are taken from a corresponding series of staging areas comprising at least:xe2x80x94xe2x97xaf one staging area around the tees looking down the target line over the fairway to a prospective first-shot target zone for the original shot off the tee, as from a player""s perspective; xe2x97xaf another staging area around the first-shot target zone looking either rearwards back to the tees or forward ahead to a second-shot target zone; and, xe2x97xaf a further staging area around the greens looking back up the fairway.
The user is allowed to choose which episode the user desires to playback vis-a-vis the user""s machine and browser.
Given the foregoing, this allows the user informative amusement with playback of the given single-hole episode, the user being limited in the informative amusement with the given single-hole episode by the content such that the pictorial tour only gives evaluative information respecting the play of the hole by excluding promotional content for promoting the golf course as well as excluding golf-lesson content respecting general lessons on skills for playing the game of golf applicable to any hole, whereby the user is freed of extraneous content that diverges from informing the user respecting the strategy how to play the hole and so allows the user to see himself in the context of his play through the hole vis-a-vis playback of the episode.
A number of additional features and objects will be apparent in connection with the following discussion of preferred embodiments and examples.